TIFF 2015 Review: Beasts Of No NationPosted by Wilson Morales
September 14, 2015
Not since Quvenzhané Wallis’ breakthrough and Oscar nominated role in 2012’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild” has a Black actor under the age of 20 captivated audiences. With Cary Fukunaga’s disturbing yet powerful and emotional “Beasts of No Nation,” 15-year-old Abraham Attah commands the screen as a child soldier in conflict with a do or die scenario. Backing him up and giving a performance that could land him an Oscar nomination is the always reliable Idris Elba, who’s terrifying as the Commandant.
Set in Nigeria, Africa, Agu (Abraham Attah) is just a normal 13-year old kid playing with his friends and finding creative ways to make money like selling broken but “imaginary” televisions sets to soldiers. As he goes home and eats with his family, little does he know that in a short time, his life will no longer be the same. Within a short period, when word gets out that government forces are invading villages, the community decides that they must vacate the premises, but some of older men, including Abu’s father, brother, and grandfather that they will fight for their home and land. By accident, Abu couldn’t leave with his mother and sister and is left behind with the men. As the forces start to take over, Abu is able to escape but not before watching his male family members get executed along with the other men from the village.
Wandering in the forest and struggling to survive with no food or water, Agu is captured by rebels, led by Commandant (Elba), who has some kids just about his Abu’s age and older in his unit. Given the opportunity to either die or work under him as a soldier, Agu has no choice but to say yes and learn how to shoot and kill. Reluctantly, his first task as a soldier is to kill a man with a machete in a brutal way. It isn’t long before Agu, with Commandant acting like a father figure, has been in assimilated in this war-torn violent where he can’t tell right from wrong.
Distributed by Netflix as its first feature, Fukunaga pulls no punches in showing the horror of civil war and genocide in African countries. We saw it with Don Cheadle’s Hotel Rwanda as well as Djimon Hounsou’s Blood Diamond, but this is from the perspective of a kid, who doesn’t know the endgame to his life as he see kids killing kids and raping women with no remorse. In his first big role and also narrating the film, Attah is wise beyond his young years. He commands the screen and Elba is just as good as the leader we don’t want to meet. Although he’s mostly known for directing Season 1 of HBO’s True Detective, which was met with critical acclaim, Fukunaga also had the pleasure of helming the indie film Sin Nomber and be seen a director with a strong future ahead of him.
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